Christmas Part 1: The Great Tree Hunt

If you haven't met my family you may not know the seriousness that is taken when it comes to the Christmas tree.  Corey's family has a few guidelines that we have adopted and have followed over the years.  Here are a few:

It must be real.
It must be full (no weird open places missing branches).
It must be healthy.  No one wants a dead tree at Christmas.
And, the most important guideline is that it must be the biggest tree that your house can possibly hold!

All joking aside, we do love the tradition of picking out our Christmas tree.  It's a family affair and tradition that I hope to continue for many years to come.  Even though they make a mess, bring in the spiders, and have fallen (yes, I said fallen) and destroyed some of my favorite ornaments I will forever cherish the memories that I'm making with my kids.

Here are a few pictures from our Great Tree Hunt 2010:

Will & Gracie "hunting" for the perfect tree:

After walking around for about 30 minutes (at least) we found the perfect tree:

It took some convincing, on my part, that this was the tree because it was HUGE!

But, after some discussion we decided it was the prettiest one out there and the most full (because it was at least 18 feet tall... not joking!).  Now, it was time to get to work.  The kids were watching in amazement.

Then, with the help of Papaw & Will (of course) the tree began to fall down.  I love this picture of Will pushing on Corey to knock the tree down.

I'm pretty sure Gracie agreed with me and thought we were crazy!

Next, we helped Nana & Papaw pick out their tree.

Will got even more involved in the cutting down process of their tree.  He really wanted to help.

Then, it was time to load both tree's up and head for home!

The kids loved getting to ride in the front of Papaw's truck around the farm.

And, off we go to decorate our prize tree.  Did I mention that we only paid $28 for our tree?!?  Every tree at this farm was $28... crazy!  

Here are a few pictures of the finished product.  It was a little crazy getting it decorated.  It took 2 ladders and a lot of patience, especially for the kids, oh, who am I kidding?... mostly for myself!  

We had to buy a lot more lights to fill the tree up and it required a little lasso-ing (sp?) skill on Corey's part to get the lights around the top.

Did I mention that this tree almost fell too?  It didn't hit the floor (like last year's) thanks to Mark, Corey & Debbie catching it.  However, we did loose a few more ornaments.  After that scare, they tied fishing line from the tree to the window to give me some added insurance.  Or, else I was going to take every breakable and special ornament off!  : )

We loved this tree and were very grateful to have it.  Will was very proud of it and loved telling everyone that we had the biggest tree ever.  I'm not sure that we will get a tree this big next year but you can guarantee that it will be a real one!

Snow Fun!

If someone told me on Sunday that we would be snowed in until Thursday I wouldn't have believed it.  But, here it is Thursday and it's the first time we have left our house in 4 days!  Wow!  What a gift from God to be snowed in with your family.  Even with the "cabin fever" we experienced and the need for milk it was so great to have 4 uninterrupted days with just the 4 of us.  We got stuff done that we've been putting off, we rested... a lot, played games, watched movies and even played in the snow one day.

Here are a few pictures of our house.  The word is that we got 5-8 inches of snow!

Here are a few of my favorite moments:

~Gracie playing in the snow.  She enjoyed it much more this year than last.  I loved it when she threw it into the air and said, "It's snowing!" with that huge grin on her face.

~Will's first time sledding (on a trash can lid).  He was a little unsure about it.  I'm just proud he is getting braver and not so cautious like his mom!

~Snuggling in our bed watching Toy Story 3.

~Of course, watching Auburn win the National Championship!  War Eagle!  Will & Gracie were both so excited watching the first half of the game.  Gracie kept cheering "rah, rah, shish coom ba (sorry, don't know how to spell that one)!" and Will was running plays as the Tiger's did their thing.  So cute!

~I loved having naptime to spend with Corey.  We watched TV, hung pictures, and even took a nap or two.

~Sock wars with dad in our master bedroom!

~All 4 of us working on the nursery.  Corey & Will got the crib rail installed (it was off since Gracie used it for a toddler bed).  We hung the Auburn mobile which is the kids favorite thing in the room.  Gracie helped me put all of the baby clothes into the drawers (all gender neutral of course!). And then we got the swing put together.  I can't believe we are heading into the last trimester!

~All of the special treats we ate like, warm chocolate chip cookies, popcorn and leftover Christmas treats.  The kids don't usually get a lot of that around here so they loved every minute of it.

And, I'm sure their are many more things that I'm forgetting.

All I know is that I'm grateful. Maybe this week has been God's way of telling our families it is time to take a break and spend some quality time together with no holiday responsibilities or worries from the outside world.  Thank you God for this blessing and the gift of snow!

32

Last week I turned 32.  It used to sound so old to be in your 30's but now it just seems like a number.  Another year of joy I get to spend with my family and friends.

Since this sweet little baby in my tummy has me doing a lot resting we decided to stay in on my big day.  I went to dinner with some girls the night before and half way through the meal I was having so many contractions that I had to get out of their as quick as possible.  Thankful that as long as I lay down and keep drinking water that the contractions stop.

So, Corey and the kids spent the day making me cupcakes, taco soup and working on some homemade cards while I got to watch movies and relax (pretty awesome... I know!).  Will & Gracie were so proud to show me the cards they made.  Here is Will's... very thoughtful (he drew a picture for me on the inside, daddy did the writing of course!).

And then, Gracie walked in with her creation and it took all I had not to laugh!

It was so sweet and she was so proud!  I hope I never forget the look on her face when she presented it to me with such pride and pure innocence.  She also had help from her dad but when he walked away to take a call her creativeness took over and she made her master piece.  As he was walking back into the room she was crumbling it up into a ball and said... "all done"!  I love it Gracie and I hope you always feel confidence in yourself like you did that day!

Corey also out did himself this year on my gift and got the second edition of my blog published.  It was a lot of work because there is not a company that publishes Mac blogs so he had to cut and paste and then mail it to a publishing company to be made into a book.  It is awesome.  So fancy and even nicer than the first.  I absolutely love it!  And watching my kids look through the pages (almost 300 of them) and laugh at the pictures and then listen to the stories was amazing.  It was all I needed to get motivated to start blogging again.  This is the history I will share with my kids and grandkids one day!

Here are some pictures of the cover:

We finished off the day with dinner and cupcakes!

I love my family and feel so blessed to celebrate another year.  Thanks Corey for making it so special!  I love you!

welcome 2 our world... what it means to me

I love the song by Chris Rice, Welcome to our World.  It has been special to me for many years because of it's significant words and gentle tune.  


Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But Long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make yourself at home
Please make yourself at home

Bring your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to hear us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around you
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world


So, in case you are curious about the title of my blog, "Welcome 2 our World" now you know what I was thinking when I came up with it 6 years ago.  There is nothing more important than daily welcoming Jesus Christ into my world and into the world of my children because after all this is His world and nothing else matters without Him.

Baby Trevathan (#3)

When I left blogger I was pregnant with Gracie.  I think it is pretty funny that I'm returning when I'm pregnant again!  My due date is April 10th.  So in case, you haven't heard or seen a picture of the newest Trevathan.. here you go...

Here is it's profile picture:

I think it's a girl, which if you know me or anything about my mother's intuition when it comes to this you know it is probably a boy!  I always get it wrong!

Here is it's footprint!  So cool!

These pictures were taken last Monday.  I am 27 weeks pregnant and wish I was feeling a little better than I have been.   I had a positive fFN test on Monday (of last week) which means I'm on modified bed rest for now until I'm feeling better.  The rest seems to be working so I'm hoping I won't be in bed for the rest of the pregnancy.

Hello Blogger...

Well, after 3 years I'm coming back to Blogger.  I've been using Mac's version for awhile for my blog and it has been good to me.  The one drawback to Mac's version was publishing my blog into a book.  It was not a fun job for my awesome husband who had to cut and past 3 years worth of posts and then send it to a publishing company who then charged him a small fortune!  What can I say, I married an amazing man who went to great lengths to preserve my memories.  I'm very blessed and my newest archive/book is amazing!  (I will share pictures soon.)

Blogger, while a little more basic, will be just what I need as I simplify this year and try to get back to blogging more regularly.  I'm looking forward to a fresh start (even though I'm using my old account... what can I say... it was just easier that way!).  So today I say "hello Blogger" as I open a new chapter to blogging.